The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), part
of the National Institutes of Health, has invested $16.4 million
of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funds
to jump-start a range of research projects that address critical
gaps in the basic biomedical and behavioral sciences.

The new two-year awards, which are called Challenge Grants, focus
on overcoming specific scientific and technological challenges
in areas of interest to NIGMS. These include stem cells, molecular
imaging, synthetic biology, drug discovery, green chemistry, behavioral
research and research training.

The Recovery Act awards support 19 projects in 12 states, enabling
scientists to explore important research questions while stimulating
their local economies through job creation, training and purchasing
of new equipment.

"The basic research supported by NIGMS lays a foundation
for disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention," said NIGMS
Director Jeremy M. Berg, Ph.D. "These Challenge Grants, made
possible by the Recovery Act, enable us to capitalize on scientific
opportunities in a range of our mission areas by speeding progress
toward new tools, methods and knowledge."

The NIGMS Challenge Grants will enable, for example:

James W. Thomas of Emory University in Atlanta ($852,500) to
develop a model organism — the prairie vole — for
studying the biological and environmental underpinnings of a
wide range of human social behaviors, including alcoholism, autism
and parental bonding.

Virginia W. Cornish of Columbia University in New York City
($840,710) to develop very bright fluorescent chemical tags that
researchers can easily use to image single molecules in cells
and explore complex molecular interactions.

Shannon S. Stahl of the University of Wisconsin-Madison ($747,166)
to use innovative approaches in chemistry and engineering to
enable more environmentally friendly methods for developing and
producing pharmaceuticals.

In addition to these awards, the NIH Office of the Director is
supporting 15 Challenge Grants closely aligned with the NIGMS mission.

For project details, go to http://projectreporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm,
check the box that says "Show only projects supported by NIH
Recovery Act funds" and enter the name of the scientist in
the Principal Investigator field.

NIGMS is a part of NIH that supports basic research to increase
our understanding of life processes and lay the foundation for
advances in disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention. For more
information on the Institute's research and training programs,
see http://www.nigms.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and Centers
and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
It is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting basic,
clinical and translational medical research, and it investigates
the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.
For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.